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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Brownies are one of those sweet treats that can satisfy almost anyone, yet one where people can be surprisingly opinionated:

"Can I have a corner piece? I love the corner pieces."
"I only eat the middle. Edge pieces? Gross."
"Why don't these have frosting? Do you have any frosting that I can put on these?"
"Baked? No thanks. Let me know once the batter ready though, I claim the leftovers in the bowl."

These are all differing opinions that I've heard from friends and family alike. Here's my interpretation (and preference) on a chocolate-y dessert stable: brownies. And its all for the gluten free ratio rally this month.

The Ratio

2 : 3 : 3 : 6 : 2

chocolate : egg : butter : sugar : flour

Gisslen's baker's ratio for brownies are listed above. For this recipe, fresh strawberries are added to the batter, which adds a nice little pop of fresh fruit flavor to each bite, and the almonds provide great texture. Also, if you do the math for my recipe, I go a little lower than 6 on the sugar for this recipe. I prefer the taste of darker chocolate, and there's inherently some sweetness added from the strawberries. All of this together provides a great springtime twist on a dessert classic.

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the inside and sides of a 8x8 pan. Set aside. In a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter together. Once completely melted, remove the mix from the heat.

While the chocolate cools, stir the egg, sugar, and vanilla together until just combined in a medium bowl. Once combined, add about 1/4 cup of the egg mix into the chocolate, and stir quickly to combine (this brings the eggs up to temperature slowly to not scramble them.). Add the chocolate to the rest of the egg mix. Stir just until combined.

Fold in the flours until just combined. Fold in the strawberries and almonds until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place in the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.